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Countdown to Christmas Quiz (1)
Which famous nineteenth-century public intellectual was godfather to the philosopher Bertrand Russell? Post your answers as Comments below.

Hayek on Mill

Submitted by jule herbert on Sun, 2007-12-16 20:45.
By the way, the cautionary tale about Mill is well set out in Hayek's work on him and Harriet Taylor. If he had any influence on Russell -- and may well have given that Russell was ophaned young -- it was likely baleful.

Re: Hayek on Mill

Submitted by roderick on Sun, 2007-12-23 10:56.
While I have plenty of problems with Mill, Hayek's account of Mill seems to me largely unfair and indeed weird. (Example: Hayek describes Mill as believing that majority rule will automatically protect people's liberties. Huh? Mill? The Mill who wrote Representative Government and On Liberty?) He also seems to buy into the myth of Harriet Taylor's "malign influence" on Mill. Given that the chief fruit of that influence was On Liberty, Mill's most libertarian work, it's an odd view.

godfather

Submitted by jule herbert on Sun, 2007-12-16 20:40.
John Stuart Mill

Re: godfather

Submitted by roderick on Sun, 2007-12-23 10:47.
And Bentham was Mill's godfather, so there's a 3-generation link.